To lose a loved one is always difficult, even after years apart. While Audrey Meadows and Jackie Gleason spent a great deal of time together as onscreen husband and wife in The Honeymooners, they were also able to find success independently as actors after the series had wrapped. However, the separation hadn't dampened the love that the two shared as friends, even years later.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Audrey Meadows revealed that she had called Gleason a few days before he passed away of cancer. Meadows revealed that, first, she spoke to Marilyn Taylor, Gleason's wife, because Gleason himself was so sick. Meadows explained, "Marilyn said, 'I'm going to take the phone in to him. His speech isn't very clear, but I'll put you on.' So I heard her say, as she took the phone to the bed, 'Jackie, it's Audrey. It's your Alice."

If that isn't enough to reduce you to a crying mess, give it another minute to recount what Meadows and Gleason's final conversation was about. Meadows remembered, "I said, 'Jackie, I just called to tell you I loved you.' and he said something — I didn't understand a word of it. And I said, 'I never thanked you for giving me the part of Alice.' And suddenly he said, 'I knew what I was doing!' The same voice as ever, clear as a bell."

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Here's how Audrey Meadows won the role of Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners

After Gleason's passing, Meadows was offered an opportunity to perform an in-character "eulogy" of Ralph Kramden, from his wife Alice; Meadows refused. 

She stated, "I told them I would no more come into the kitchen as Alice than I would fly to the moon. I said, 'A eulogy? I think that is the worst thing I have ever heard in my entire life. I cannot imagine anything worse. I said, 'In the first place, Ralph is not dead. Ralph will live forever!'"